Cedarville sees ‘dream come true’ with first NCAA Division II tournament bid

In the end, forward Conner TenHove said they decided to gather in front of two TVs in the locker room at the Callan Athletic Center because “no matter what we’re together.”

That made the moment the Cedarville name popped up on the broadcast extra special.

“It was honestly breathtaking,” guard Quinton Green said. “We were all nervous that whole day. We hadn’t heard any news all day, and we’ve been working hard for five years. We’ve been here for a long time. To see our name come up, it was a dream come true.”

Estepp got the news from someone about three minutes before everyone else in the room saw it live on the broadcast but still cheered as loud as everyone else.

“It was such a joy,” said Estepp, a 1997 Cedarville who worked eight seasons as an assistant on Ray Slagle’s staff and is now in his 14th season as head coach. “It’s like being a parent when your kids experience something thrilling. I had that as a dad a few years ago. My son really ran his best race to get our cross country team to its first state tournament ever as a team. These are like my sons. We’re around them so much. To watch them experience the reward for a lot of hard work, God was very gracious to give us an at-large bid, and our guys were faithful to what they had to do.”

As the No. 6 seed in the Midwest Region, Cedarville will play No. 3 seed Hillsdale College (20-7) at noon Friday at Walsh in North Canton. Cedarville and Hillsdale both play in the Great Midwest. This will be their fourth matchup this season.

Hillsdale beat Cedarville 58-57 at Cedarville on Dec. 11 and 85-71 at Hillsdale on Jan. 29. The teams played again Friday in the semifinals of the conference tournament, and Cedarville won 68-66, overcoming a 66-61 deficit with a 7-0 run in the last 43 seconds.

“We came in confident,” Estepp said. “We kind of pushed aside what had happened. We got off to a good start, which is key. We played really well in the first half. We just played with a lot of poise and grit in the second half. They were shooting 70% from 3. We were missing shots we had hit. Our guys kept battling, and we kept it tight. We didn’t let the run get away from us. We had some guys step up and hit some big shots in the last minutes, especially in the last minute.

“These guys are capable of that. That’s what we kept talked to them about all week. You’ve got to have courage in these tournament games. You’ve got to shoot it with courage. You’ve got to play with courage. You’ve got to have poise. We’ve got a veteran group that’s been through a lot of fires. All the credit to them. They’re the ones who made the plays late.”

A 3-pointer by Isaiah Speelman with 43 seconds to play started the comeback. Then Braden Maughmer tied the game on a jump shot with 12 seconds to play.

Then with five seconds to play and the game still tied at 66-66, Hillsdale had an in-bounds play on its side of the court. Maughmer got a hand on the pass near the 3-point line, batting it ahead. He caught up to the ball at halfcourt, took two dribbles and scored on a layup as time expired with a defender draped all over him.

“I heard the point guard tell the player I stole it from, ‘Go get the ball,’” Maughmer said. “I told my brother (sophomore Jayvon Maughmer), ‘Take my man. I’m going to take your man.’ As soon as the ball went live, they split. My man went to the corner. My brother’s man went to the 3-point line. I played cornerback in high school. I just jumped the route. I got my fingertips on it enough where I could steal it. I saw the open lane and knew I had to make the layup.”

The play got Cedarville into the NCAA tournament. Without that victory, there’s little doubt it would have not received an at-large bid. Cedarville or Hillsdale will play No. 2 Ferris State or No. 7 Findlay, who play at 2:30 p.m. Friday, in the second round Saturday. Cedarville beat Findlay, one of four Great Midwest teams in the North Canton regional, twice in the regular season.

Great Midwest champion Walsh is the No. 1 seed and plays No. 8 Davenport at 5 p.m. Friday. Cedarville has lost three times to Walsh this season.

Saturday’s winners will advance to the regional championship game, which will take place Monday. The regional champion will play in the Elite Eight in Evanvsille, Ind., on March 22.

Prior to making the move to NCAA Division II, Cedarville played in the NAIA Division II tournament five times and advanced to the semifinals once, the quarterfinals twice, and to the second round twice. It reached the NCAA tournament for the first time with five seniors/graduate students who have all scored more than 1,000 points in their careers: Green; TenHove; Speelman; Branden Maughmer; and Kollin Van Horn.

“We’ve had a lot of experiences — good and bad — together,” TenHove said. “To end it this way is really special.”